The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-03-05
TWO YEARS OF CLEVELAND,

We have had two years of Grover Cleve-
land and Democratic administration. What
have we to show for itg The promises
and professions on which the Democracy
came into power, and the methods by which
they acquired it are familiar to all. They
succeeded in making a large class of voters
believe that change of administration was
necessary, or at least very desirable, and they
succeeded in practically DISTINGUISHING an
other large class of voters, AMI between the
two they obtained reimbursement and
majority. By false pretenses in the North
and by fraud in the South Mr.. Cleveland was
elected The election was won on the cries of
REFORM 'open the books and "turn the
rascals out" We have had two years of
Democratic administration, and with what re-
sult9 To begin with, they found little or
nothing to reform, no great abuses to correct,
no rascals that needed turning out, and no
books but were honestly and correctly kept
We presume they expected to find things in
very different shape, otherwise they
| were great fools to have made such
a noise with their campaign cries, and held
out such great expectations of reform. If
| honesty can be attributed to the Democracy
in anything, it is probable they honestly ex-
pected to find the public business and affairs
in very bad shape, and every department hon
eycombed with corruption They found moth
ing o.. the kind, and were corraspondingly dis
appointed. They found the treasury full to
overlooking. the Treasurer's accounts correct
| to cent, every book posted and balanced, ev-
cry branch of the government in perfect order
and all its affairs great and small in splendid
condition. AS there was no room for great
reforms they could make none. AS matter
of fact, they have been too busy trying to
learn how to administer the government to
have any time left for instituting reforms,
even if any were needed. And, there being
no rascals to turn out, they reversed the cam
paign cry and commenced taking them
in. To make places for them they
invented the new crime Of offensive
craftsmanship" and by figure of speech con-
strued this to mean rascality. So they have
continued reforming things by turning out ex-
perienced, competent, honest men, and put
ting in inexperienced, incompetent, and, in
many instances, dishonest ones. The result
has been general decentralization Of the pub
lie service. This is more conspicuous in the
postal service than in any other, because it
comes more directly and closely in contact
with the people. They see and feel the
decentralization Of that service more than any
where else, but it runs through every branch.
In the diplomatic service there have been
more scandals in the last two years than
there were in twenty years before In the
Department of Justice we have the telephone
scandal, duplicating the late Solicitor Goode
and Attorney general Garland And so it
goes. Where there is not general demoralza-
ton or open scandal there is official incom-
potency. The administration of public bust
ness, so far from having been reformed or i'm
proved, has VIGOROUSLY deteriorated. Not a
single one of the campaign reasons for a
change has been indicated, nor any of the
promises Of reform made good. The first two
years Of Democratic administration have been
a very dismal failure: 1t would be difficult
to find their parallel without waiting two
years longer. There is every reason to expect
that the next two years will be worse than
the last two